30th April The split province: The army and government in the 3rd century

7th May Regencies and child emperors II: Severus Alexander

21st May Living together: Life in the Cities and the new towns

28th May Life in the countryside & the rise of the country house

11th June New gods, old gods: the changing face of religion

The lectures can be attended individually or as a complete course.

Day: Thursdays Time: 2pm– 4pm

5 weeks, starting May 30th- June 11th 2020.Please note: The following dates in the autumn would repalce the original dates of the Summer brochure: 1st October for 30th April, 8th October for 7th May ,15th October for 21st May, 22nd October for 28th May and 29th October 2020 for 11th June.

If we have to cancel due to Covid-19. If the lectures have to be cancelled:, the lectures and your bookings will be automatically moved to the dates indicated above unless you indicate otherwise at the time of booking or within 5 days of receiving the cancellation of the summer date (by phone or email).

A landlocked city of a million inhabitants needs good harbours to keep itself supplied, from the earliest times Rome was very keen at controlling the mouth of the Tiber and the resources it offered, creating its first colony at the mouth of the river – Ostia (literally the mouth of the river).
Focusing on Portus (the man-made harbour at the other branch of the Tiber), this dayschool will explore the economy and infrastructure in the Tiber estuary and its transport links with Rome.

Please note: The car park is a very busy pay and display car park (£2).

Price

Concessions

Minimum No.

Maximum No.

£32

£28*

9

35

*£28, if booked before, 15 January 2020.

To book, complete the MANCENT booking form and send it with payment to the address below. If you would like to pay via BACS or Paypal please contact Birgitta Hoffmann for details.
Birgitta Hoffmann
55 Broadwalk, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5PL
email: latinteacher@btinternet.com mobile: 07747 533 070

Serbia/Eastern Lower Pannonia emerged in the Roman Empire as a traffic node between East and West, situated along the Middle Danube with its massive Gorge, as well as the main tributary leading into the Southern Balkans it was rich in natural resources (such as silver and gold and grain growing areas), but also exposed to the numerous threats of invasions from the North.
This dayschool will explore the amazing archaeological remains from the Imperial palaces at Nis and Gamzigrad to the impressive Roman remains along the Danube and the colourful material culture of the area.

Please note: The car park is a very busy pay and display car park (£2).

Price

Concessions

Minimum No.

Maximum No.

£32

£28*

9

35

*£28, if booked before, 15 February 2020.

To book, complete the MANCENT booking form and send it with payment to the address below. If you would like to pay via BACS or Paypal please contact Birgitta Hoffmann for details.
Birgitta Hoffmann
55 Broadwalk, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5PL
email: latinteacher@btinternet.com mobile: 07747 533 070

I know some of you organise lectures for the U3A or local societies and are looking for suitable topics and lecturers. Many of our lecturers are available for one off lectures and will be happy to discuss terms with you.

After a lot of requests, we decided to leave the past courses online, so you can see what we have already done, and what the area of general interest of our lecturers is. I hope you approve.

The Elizabeth Gaskell house in Manchester is showing from February an exhibition onElizabeth Gaskell’s Manchester

Elizabeth Gaskell lived in Manchester from 1832 until her death in 1865, a time of huge change and expansion for the city, which raised many challenges for its residents from the coming of the railways and the Free Trade Movement and the Reform Acts to the Cholera and the Cotton Famine on the other.

The exhibition focuses on the Politics, Commerce, Transport, Learning, Churches, the Mills, the Poor, the Shops, Art, Music and Literature.

Anthony is hoping to offer a day school in the Summer term on the topic

will focus on the concept of Heka (magic) in ancient Egypt. Heka was a divine force imbued in deities, the king and the dead. It could be used for good or bad, private or state purposes. This course will focus on two main areas. Firstly, deities and ritual practitioners (priests and priestesses), this will include the god Heka and and the gods as healers, for example Sekhmet. Secondly, the course will examine the objects and images created to channel the power of heka, including execration and fertility figurines, amulets, wands and spell books.

Although much, if not all, of Egyptian art was magical this course will examine images and objects created specifically for magical practice. A broad definition of magic will be used; which is, any activity that seeks to obtain its goal outside the natural laws of cause and effect, will be deemed magical.

This includes rituals in the home, temples and in the funeral realm; most rituals in ancient Egypt used a combination of recitation and action.

The lectures will demonstrate the assimilation of magic, medicine and religion in ancient Egypt and illustrate how magical practice was part of everyday life. As Egyptologist, Robert Ritner said, ‘one man’s magic is another man’s religion’. The course also presents a rare opportunity to handle and photograph many magical objects from ancient Egypt at Manchester Museum.

On October 28th, 2016 we are running a dayschool in Wilmslow to address how the smaller neighbours responded to having Rome as an overmighty neighbour. As you can imagine no two people react in quite the same way, and questions of size of the state and the history between Rome and the state/tribe in question played as significant role. After all, while Parthia or the Dacians did have the power to inflict crushing defeats on the Romans, other tribes, such as the Parisi in East Yorkshire would have a lot less options in their response to Rome. However, archaeology has shown that the situation could be very fluid with Iron Age hill forts active within sight of Roman forts, as in the picture here from the German Limes on the Main at Miltenberg in one area, while other areas appear to have been empty of Iron Age populations and there is historic evidence for deportation and genocide.

As part of the dayschool we are happy to announce that Prof Euan MacKie from the University of Glasgow has agreed to come and talk to us about how the residents of the Iron Age Brochs in Western Scotland interacted with Rome and how the archaeological evidence can be used to reconstruct their relationship with Rome.

Prof. MacKie has just finished the final report on his excavations on the Broch of Leckie in Stirlingshire and we look forward to hearing all about his findings.